Family Matters
by tiacat11
Summary: Sometimes, when Sonic concentrates hard, he can remember glimpses and flashes of the family he lost as a child - a loving mother and a heroic father. Now he's off to find them and bring his family back together. He's in for a rude awakening. (There WILL be OCs, by definition.)
1. Congratulations

Doctor Ivo Robotnick looked up from the computer terminal where he was working. "You do realize I'm not that kind of doctor, don't you?" he questioned his guest.

His visitor, a young hedgehog woman, snorted and stomped her foot slightly. "I _know _that, Ivo," She retorted, boldly using his first name, as few around the area did. "But you're the only person around here who would actually know what the hell they're doing, and I really could care less about whether or not you're licensed."

"You could just visit the hospital in the village." Robotnick suggested, but he could tell just by the look on her face that was a bad suggestion.

"I don't like hospitals." She said flatly. "I don't even like you that much, but at least you're not so..." She trailed off for a moment, searching for the right word. "Bleached?"

Ivo 'tch'ed and rolled his eyes. Had it been anyone else who had said that to him, he would have been furious, but he knew the woman well enough to know her blunt statements were simply a side effect of her tendency to say whatever was on her mind. "Let me get this straight, Clary - you're willing to put yourself and potentially others in considerable danger just to avoid facing whatever phobias you have about hospitals?"

"I am _not _going to the hospital! They're too _clean, _too _white!_" Clary immediately ranted. "The second you step through those doors, you're no longer a person, just a _specimen _to them! Like you're just some common goods! It's maddening!"

Ivo threw up his hand in a calming gesture, and luckily she did actually calm, but not before throwing out an expletive or two first. _Her brain-to-mouth filter really _is _missing, isn't it? _Ivo thought to himself. Although he was not close with Clary, or indeed any of the sapients that lived in the village just a few miles down the road from him, he did see her on a semi-regular basis, and out of all of the people living down there, he had to admit he did probably like her more than the others. It was most likely because of this that he put up with her... outspoken personality.

"I have money." She bargained. "Plenty of it. I bet it could keep your projects running for quite some time. Ivo..." she continued quieter, dropping her gaze for a moment, just a moment. The hedgehog was far too proud to beg, or even to say 'please,' but this was something she truly needed.

Now Ivo was both slightly impressed and annoyed. He too was fully aware of the girl's tremendous pride, and the amount of effort it must have took for that simple plead. He was also aware that she had struck a nerve with him in talks of money. Funding for his projects was rather difficult for him, not because what he did wasn't impressive enough, but because he lacked the people skills to win potential investors over. It was part of the reason why he lived so far away from others. Although he tried to fight it, he couldn't stop his eyes from lingering over several of his prototypes scattered around his workshop. A small ladybug-looking contraption with a single wheel lay on one table, incomplete. A flying circular cockpit sat limp in the pit where he last worked on it, unable to continue working on the delicate, often microscopic, circuitry with his outdated tools. Finally, on one desk sat a whole mass of blueprints, each depicting a new and exciting project that were very unlikely to get off the ground for at least another few years. _Unless he could speed up the process. _

A heavy sigh escaped him as he realized the decision had already been made for him. "Very well."

A spark of excitement mixed with relief shot through her eyes, before she quickly composed herself, straightening up and nodding her head, as though that was the outcome she had been expecting all along. "Very well." She echoed. "Let's get started then, shall we?"

Ivo smiled to himself as he realized the decision had already been made the instant she walked through the door. After all, given her position, it would be unbearably callous, even by his standards, to turn her away.

"Where do you want me?" Clary asked, stepping into the lab.

Ivo pointed to a mostly-uncluttered lab table near one corner of his not-unimpressive lab. "Just move some things if you need to, I hardly ever touch that stuff anyway."

The hedgehog obediently strode over to the table, only needing to move one or two things before lightly hopping up on to the table with a catlike grace. Which was appropriate, given that she was half cat, on her mother's side. From this position she watched him dig through a couple boxes along the nearby wall.

The first box he pulled out looked to Clary to be an oversized stethoscope, but missing the earpieces. Instead cords ran and tangled into a rat's nest, leaving the ends somewhere in the box. The second almost resembled the screen one might find on a laptop computer, but missing the keyboard, or really any kind of button Clary could see. Ivo began talking while he continued hunting around in the boxes for a third.

"I created a device a few years ago, to help people see in the dark. A military contract, as I recall. The idea was, rather than try to amplify light, as my competitors were doing, I choose to go a different route. The machine works by emitting high-pitched frequencies, which then bounce off whatever objects they come into contact with and return to the sender. The machine would then record the sounds and calculate the time it took for them to return, and create a moving, if somewhat grainy picture based on those calculations. Genius, if I do say so myself. Mine was the only device to work in levels with absolutely no light at all."

"They could have just gotten bats, you know." Clary pointed out.

"Pardon?" Ivo said, momentarily forgetting his search.

"Bats." The hedgehog repeated. "My friend's one, she uses the exact same technique all the time. Echolocation, you know?"

"Yes, well..." Ivo coughed. "That _is _where I got the idea..."

Clary smiled. "It _is _impressive that you managed to take that evolutionary tool and make it into a thing everyone can use." She said, deciding to throw the doctor a bone.

Ivo scoffed. "I don't need your _pity._" he insisted, to Clary's amusement. Returning to his search, he finally found what he was looking for, pulling a long, black cord the width of his middle finger with bizarre plugs on the ends out of a huge tangle of others, finally getting off his knees and grabbing the other boxes, placing them on a counter near the table where his visitor was still waiting.

"This device will suit our needs well enough," Ivo said, pulling the stethoscope echolocation device out and plugging one end of the cord into it. "But rather than the night-vision goggles, I need something a tad more clear." He used a nearby screwdriver to pop the casing on the screen, exposing the wires. "As usual, the two devices I need aren't compatible, so I'm going to have to jury-rig this output cable to make it work properly..."

Around this time Clary zoned out, and only came back around when he made a noise to indicate he was done. "Are you ready?" He asked her.

She nodded, and tugged her shirt up until it only covered her breasts. "Don't peek." She ordered firmly, and lay back on the table. It was uncomfortable for her even without the cold steel biting into her bare back, as just the position she was in made her feel... exposed.

Ivo just snorted. "Believe me, Clary, even if you were my own species I wouldn't." he replied, then got to work. For several minutes he was totally silent as he went about his work, and Clary had to resist the urge to fidget, especially with the bizarre metal instrument pressed against her stomach. At first, he held it in just one place, focusing the picture on the screen, then he began to move it around some, first pressing into one side, then another, until Clary was one hundred percent sure he was drawing this out on purpose. Within around five minutes, though it seemed longer to the prone hedgehog, he finally switched the echolocation device off and returned to the screen, flipping it over so that Clary could see the image for herself. The image was in very blurry grayscale, and very few details could be made out, until Ivo pointed a finger at a circular patch darker than the surrounding area.

Clary swallowed, her mouth suddenly very dry.

Ivo turned up the contrast a little on the screen, but in Clary's mind, she didn't need it. She already knew every minute detail of the patch on the screen. "Congratulations, Clary. You're pregnant."

* * *

She left the lab in a daze, not even bothering to barter with him on the amount of money for his unorthodox services. Not that she would have anyways, money always had a habit of burning a hole in her pocket. Her roommate would often joke and say she had expensive tastes, but honestly, Clary rarely even cared about her purchases. There was an entire closet in the three bedroom house the girls shared together dedicated to the things she had been dying to buy, and then forgot about the instant she got home.

Almost automatically Clary's mind shifted to the things she'd have to buy now: blankets, toys, clothes, a crib, _diapers... _her stomach twisted up in knots at the thought of it. How on Earth was _she _supposed to be a mother?

In a sense, she was grateful for the seclusion of the lab, as it gave her time to think before she had to entire the hustle and bustle of the village. The path was not steep, but it was uneven, overgrown with weeds and dotted with potholes. The whole dirt road had a tendency to sway side to side, as though the man who cleared it had been drunk. In short, it was the perfect challenge for Clary.

She dropped to one knee, lifting her body into the sprinter's position she knew so well, tensing up like an arrow, pointing straight down the road. On a silent gunshot, she sprang forward, letting the wind and momentum push her back upright, feeling her muscles bunch and fire in quick succession.

Taking her breaths in in short, quick gasps through slightly parted mouth, as she had been trained, she willed herself to go faster. Using techniques her father and uncle had taught her, she used everything from passing trees to the pounding of her footsteps to check her speed, and used _that _to push her even faster. Now she was going 60 miles an hour, now 70, now 90, one hundred. If she could move her face, she would smile. _Let's shoot for 150._

That was another technique they taught her: always go a little bit faster than you think you can. Memories flashed unbidden before her mind, memories of her and her father, and sometimes even her uncle, all running side by side, breaking records, doing tricks, daring each other to go faster, faster, faster. _Those were the days..._

She mentally shook her head and frowned. Those days weren't really _that _great, and besides that, they were over now.

She hit her mark just as she reached the edge of the road, her face stretched wide into a grin of triumphant satisfaction as she uses her momentum to clear a fallen tree at the edge, sailing over it and grinding her heels into the dirt on the other side to slow herself. Her victory pushing the negative thoughts out of her head, she tossed her quills over her shoulder, looking back the way she came. Although she still stressed over the day's events, the run had at least managed to help a little bit. Now, however, she was approaching the village, and one too many collisions with hapless pedestrians had taught her to take it slow while in densely populated areas, or at least what qualified as densely populated here on Christmas Island.

She snorted. Most of the people living here had done so all their lives, and she was willing to bet even the thought of the big cities that lay beyond was too much for them.

Although she had slowed up in order to avoid collisions, she still moved with brisk, sharp steps, at a pace that most people would have to jog to keep up with. She was in no hurry - it was simply in her nature not to dally anywhere. Clary's posture was perfect, her back straight, her shoulders thrown back, her chin up and eyes facing directly forward. Although she had no threatening look on her face, people passing by her unconsciously gave her a wide berth, some even stepping down from the curb into the street rather than face her head on.

Out of the corner of her eye, Clary saw her reflection in a shop window, and tossed her violet hair back into place, disheveled from her furious run. Although she was very beautiful in her own right, and entertained plenty of suitors, Clary looked anything but ordinary. Her rigid posture, combined with her natural height, gave her quite a few inches over most other Mobians, especially other hedgehogs. She certainly took after her father in terms of species, showing little cat traits save for slightly longer ears and a tail, but traces of her mother's white hair showed through the periwinkle of her normal fur, especially in her ears and around her chest. She was, in short, a sight to look at, and it was often only her sharp tongue and cold glares that insured she remained undisturbed when she wanted to be.

Her house wasn't far from the edge of the village, and she reached it within a few minutes. A quaint little one-story house with a flowerbed surrounding the porch (her roommate's doing - Clary herself was never much for gardening). The outside was not painted, if only for the simple reason that she and her could never agree on a color for it, but the wood was a good quality, and stood up to the weather well, and so Clary did not complain. Simple it was, but it was warm in the winter and cool in the summer, and that was all that mattered to her.

Opening the front door, she announced her arrival with a sarcastic "Lucy, I'm home!" before taking off her purple jacket and tossing it to the side, where it landed at the foot of the coat rack.

She found her roommate in the kitchen, doing the dishes from breakfast this morning. When they had first moved in, Clary had been unable to believe her luck at finding a roommate that actually _enjoyed _doing chores.

"Hey, Silvia, I'm back." Clary greeted.

"Did he agree to do it?" her roommate, a black cat about her age, asked, too curious to bother beating around the bush. "What was the diagnosis?"

Clary sucked in a deep breath as she tossed herself into her usual spot at the table. "Affirmative."

Silvia whistled lowly, unable to come up with words. "Well, then."

"Ugh." Clary flopped her head on the table.

"Melodramatic as ever." Silvia noted, rolling her eyes and turning around to go rifling through the cupboards.

"This is _important, _Silv. What am I gonna do?" the hedgehog groaned.

"You know, most women your age are ecstatic that they'll be new mothers." Silvia said, pulling a teakettle down and moving to fill it up.

"Don't say the 'M' word!"

"You're having a baby, Clary, you're already kind of a mother." Silvia continued, filling the kettle in the sink.

"Don't say the 'B' word either!"

"_Now _you're being ridiculous." Silvia said. She set the kettle on, turned on the stove, and went to sit across from her at the table. "Like it or not, you're in this situation, and you might as well make the best of it. You have the funds to raise a child?"

A slight nod from Clary.

"You have the house already; we could convert the guest room into a nursery pretty easily."

Another nod, this time thoughtful.

"You think Doctor Robotnick would be willing to continue giving assistance?"

Clary cleared her throat and spoke up. "He might take some convincing, but... I think so, yes."

"Alright then." It was Silvia's turn to nod. "There you go. You have money, you have a nursery, you have an obstetrician slash pediatrician. What else do you need?"

This time, there was a slight 'thunk' as Clary's head hit the table. "It's not even that," she complained, "It's... me! I mean, look at me, Sil! How am _I _supposed to be a mother? I can't keep my temper under control, I'm always rushing around, I'd have _no _time to change diapers or kiss boo-boos, or whatever it is mom's do! I'd be hopeless as a mother!"

"Then learn." Silvia said coolly, standing to fetch the teapot off the stove and began pouring the hot water into two mugs.

"From who?" Clary asked.

"You have one, don't you?" Silvia retorted. "Why not ask her?"

It was probably a good thing that she was turned away from the hedgehog, as the look on Clary's face could be described as nothing short of murderous. "I will _not _speak with any them for any reason." She all but spat. "They are all exactly where I want them: out of my life."

"Alright, alright." Silvia surrendered. "If you're so sure, you may as well just rely on your own maternal instincts. Even someone like you should have them." When Clary opened her mouth to object, she quickly blocked her. "Or you could ask one of the local gossips around town. Take Ruth, she's got, like, eight kids."

_That _shut up her argument quickly, as Silvia knew her roommate's obvious distain for the loose lipped (among other things) gossip known as Ruth. She and a group of her peers were often seen on the front porch of their houses smoking cigarettes and taking turns shouting hoarsely at whatever child happened to be acting up, or shopping the flea market with an entire herd of wild haired, dirty kids in tow. Although no one in town knew more about pregnancies than she, it was highly unlikely Clary would ever ask her for anything, much less child rearing tips.

"...Fine." Clary mumbled, recognizing her own arguments had backed her into a corner. "Maybe I do have some inner mom in me somewhere. I know I'll do a better job than _my_ mother, at least." She comforted herself.

"And you'll have me for help." Silvia said, pulling a teabag out of one of the cups and turning to give it to Clary. She sat down again, leaving her own teabag still in. When Clary looked confused, Silvia just laughed. "What? Did you think I was just going to sit around and watch you try to raise the kid by yourself? I'm your roommate, Clary, I'm pretty sure I couldn't stay out of this if I tried."

For a long moment, Clary just seemed vaguely shocked, then a smile slowly spread across her face, as though she wasn't sure she was supposed to smile or not. "Thanks." She said softly.

Silvia just smiled in return, then took a deep breath. "And... do you know who the father is?"

Clary hung her head. "He's the reason why I don't want to carry the baby. I _know _he'll use it against me."

"How do you use a _baby _against a person?" Silvia wondered out loud.

"Alright, maybe not _against _me," Clary relented, "But for his own argument. See, I slept with him a little bit ago, and... It was probably an error on my part. He was really sweet and all, and he was a real gentleman, and I guess I was lonely that night, but..." Clary met her roommate's eyes. "He's in love with me. I mean, _in love. _And I... just don't feel that way. I just wanted a fling, Y'know? But I guess he saw it as something more, because ever since then, he's been trying to get me to see him regularly... you know, as his girlfriend."

A small 'ah' from Silvia. "And knowing he had a child with you would only cement that feeling."

She nodded. "I really didn't mean to go that far, but... I don't want a child with him. He's going to want to raise it with me, and that means he'll see me more, and that means he'll think even more that there's some kind of chance for us, and he'll start acting like we're married..." She trailed off into space.

"So what we need to do is make it obvious with him that you intend to raise this child on your own." Silvia said smoothly, cutting into whatever trouble was distracting her roommate now.

Clary looked back at her, vaguely confused. "But I thought you said...?"

Silvia shook her head. "That doesn't mean we need to tell _him _that. Trust me, men are all the same: give them an inch and they'll take a mile. You want him to stay out, you need to act like you want _everyone _to stay out."

"Right." Clary said, with more conviction than she thought. It was strange, she reflected, how similar talking about raising children and dodging unwanted boyfriends could sound so much like fitting out a battle strategy. Maternity and romance were new to her, but plots and strategies for using people were. The father would be less of a problem than an annoyance, and the child...

Later, when she was a little bit older, Clary would look on this day, this moment sitting there at the kitchen table with the roommate who she would one day call sister, this was the first moment she felt like she could actually _do _this.


	2. A letter from Nowhere

**Look! A chapter! See, I'm doing things with my life! **

**...**

**Yes, it's short. I see that. **

**Anyway, I'd like to thank both Google images and Deviantart artist Clyra the Wolf for providing me with the map I used for determining Sonic's path here, and probably providing me with amazing references to come. Bless you, Clyra. The less I have to think, the better off we all are. If anyone cares to look up the map and follow along with me, I'll be using the unnamed island in the middle of the Mobius Ocean (directly under the "A") as Christmas Island.**

**Also, as my author's notes didn't appear last chapter, I'd like to take a minute to thank shinyshiny9 for her help in building Clary's character, as well as basic plot points and concepts. Everyone give your best third-grade "Thank you!" shout - she deserves it.**

**Oh, and yeah, something about not owning Sonic (does it even matter? Doesn't the fact that it is posted on fanfiction dot net tell you something?) so I don't get sued or whatever. I've read the news, they've got MUCH bigger fish to fry.**

* * *

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His feet kicked out a steady rhythm as he flew past the outskirts of Station Square, following a dirt track that lead in a winding path up the hilly terrain. He had run this path plenty of times before, and felt more than comfortable doing kicks, flips, jump-offs, and even grinds as he pushed himself. When he left this morning, the large analog clock in Central Plaza read 8:14. His goal was run the entire track and be back in the plaza by 8:20. Regretfully, he stopped doing tricks on the old-style ranch fences that lined this rural area, and focused instead on going faster.

He was now approaching the halfway point, a large windmill with a base diameter of around 20 feet. The hilly landscape was dotted with them, the result of a progressive movement to provide the city with cleaner energy. The track lead in a wide circle around the main one, and then turned around and went back the way it came. To a normal jogger, this arc would barely even seem to curve, but to a hedgehog moving at the speed of sound, this was far too little room to maneuver. Of course, that was why Sonic loved this route so much - he enjoyed the challenge.

When he was first starting out on the track, he would try to keep his body as upright as possible, in the hopes that that would prevent him from losing balance and falling over, but he figured out over time it did just the opposite. As soon as he started on the circle's curve, he veered sharply, leaning over almost diagonally and letting his momentum keep him from hitting the ground. Even with his hardest efforts to follow the curve, he still wound up going into the grass near the end of the U-turn, but didn't slip, which he was grateful for.

With the most difficult obstacle now cleared, he felt free to pour on the gas and try to make the time he set for himself, feet underneath him moving so fast he couldn't even distinguish individual footsteps, as the world around him slowly dissolved into a blur of color and sound. Though he himself outran it, he knew any passerby in the area would hear the characteristic sonic boom. Not that that meant too much - most folks in the area were well adjusted to The Hero of Mobius' comings and goings.

Finally, the grassy landscape gave way to concrete buildings, and Sonic switched from the dirt track to asphalt. Pushing himself hard into one final burst of speed, he vaulted over a parked car in the way, slamming his feet on the middle of Central Plaza, eyes already darting up to the clock which read -

"Eight-Twenty!" Sonic cheered, pumping his fist.

"Break your record, Sonic?" Called a strange but friendly voice behind him.

"You know it!" Sonic turned back and flashed a thumbs-up to the man, a middle-aged badger working a hot dog stand.

"Glad to hear it." The badger said. "How 'bout one on the house to celebrate?"

"Well, I never turn down a free chili dog..." Sonic said with fake modesty, then gratefully accepted. "Thanks a bunch!"

The badger chuckled. "Sonic the Hedgehog comes and eats at _my _stand, and _you're _thanking _me?_"

He grinned, finishing off the last of it with a single bite - chili dogs never lasted long around him. "Keep making 'em like this and you'll get _lots _of thanks!"

After saying goodbye to the badger, who Sonic learned was named Phil, the rest of the morning was spent in a similar fashion, focusing first on speed, then agility, and finally strength. Sonic never bothered with endurance anymore, as he was able to keep running for so long his energy reserves seemed virtually endless, at least as far as running was concerned.

By the time lunch had rolled around, he had worked up quite an appetite, and was quite glad for the text message he received from Tails inviting him to lunch with him and Amy. He didn't bother to text a reply, as within thirty seconds he was at the diner Tails had specified. "Did somebody say 'lunch'?" He said, smiling. Tails laughed as Amy slid over.

There was a plate of nachos sitting in the middle while the others waited on their meal, and Sonic went ahead and helped himself as Amy flagged down a waiter to bring him a menu. "Did we interrupt anything?" She asked.

"Nah, not much." Sonic replied. "I was doing some early morning exercises."

Tails glanced at his watch.

"That turned into all-day workouts." Sonic finished.

"Now if only I could get that kind of work ethic when I need help around the lab." Tails joked, and the others chuckled.

The next twenty minutes or so were spent making small talk and eating lunch (Sonic mooching off the other's plates when they were done). While Amy had mellowed out considerably in recent years, it was still a little bit awkward for them to hang out just the two of them together, so they were grateful for Tails' company helping turn it into a normal date between friends.

"So wait, you went _where_?" Amy said, her fork paused before her mouth.

"I'm telling you, Mystic Mountains is the best place this side of the prime meridian to practice vertical climbs." Sonic insisted. "It's got sheer cliffs for speed, it's got some sharp canyons for in-and-outs, it's even got a couple loops! It's perfect for training."

"Didn't they just reclaim that as part of the Northern Continent?" Tails asked.

"So?" Sonic replied. "I don't really have any true loyalty to the East Continent, or even to Station Square, even though if I live here, I just go where-"

"No, I mean, how'd you get there?" Tails said.

"I ran." Sonic said, as if to say, _duh._

"Don't you need a passport to get into the Northern Continent?" Amy asked.

"Passport?" Sonic asked, his face completely blank.

"Yeah. Passport." Tails repeated. "You know, that thing you have, that lets you go to other countries?"

"Why would I need that?" Sonic asked. "Usually 'out of the way, Eggman's headed towards the city!' is the only passport I need."

"Did you seriously never have one?" Amy asked. "Like, never even thought about getting one?"

"Well, I thought about it once," Sonic admitted, "But seeing as I have citizenship, um," his eyes flicked up for a moment as he thought, "Nowhere, it was kind of a moot point."

"What about your birthplace?"

Sonic shrugged. "Never knew it. The first place I ever remember being in is Green Hill Zone, and by then I was... Five? Six?"

"What about your birth certificate?" Tails asked. "There's gotta be a birthplace there, right?"

"Birth certificate?"

"Yeah." When it was clear Sonic was still confused, Tails continued. "You got a letter several months ago asking about your birth certificate. Something about if you wanted it renewed into an adult ID."

"When was this?" Sonic demanded, suddenly urgent.

Tails, taken slightly aback, answered, "A-a couple months ago. You always put me down as your mailing address, so I get all your letters. I didn't see it as being too important, so I put it in your file and forgot about it. I'm... I'm sorry, Sonic, I should have said something sooner."

Sonic ran his hand through his quills, suddenly very agitated. "It's fine, Tails. Hey, would it still be there? The letter, I mean?"

"I never throw anything that's addressed to you out, unless I know for sure it's just junk." Tails answered. All your letters go into the filing cabinet in the off-" There was no point in continuing anymore, as he had already run off.

"Do you think he'll be okay?" Amy asked uncertainly after a brief pause, her salad forgotten.

Tails scrunched up his nose. "I think so."

Sonic returned after about ten minutes, an eternity for the speedy hedgehog. "I got it." He said triumphantly, ripping the envelope open with his plastic knife and spreading the letter out on the table.

He began to read aloud as Tails and Amy craned their necks to see.

"Dear Sonic the Hedgehog," he began.

"Our records indicate you are now 16 years of age. Congratulations on making it into adulthood."

"Adulthood?" Amy wondered.

"The age of majority might be different there." Tails suggested.

"In order to prove your newfound independence, it is best that you return to your hospital of birth as quickly as possible and claim your birth certificate. This can then be used to obtain your state-issued ID. If for any reason you wish to move out of state, you may renounce your citizenship at that time. Remember only birth citizens are entitled to hold office, as well as receive welfare and increased health benefits from work. It is advised that you reply to this letter promptly, as our records indicate you have not visited the hospital for some time, and further research may be required.

We hope to see you soon, Mayor S.C. Wolfe." he finished, looking up at the two friends earnestly.

"Well?" he said.

"Well what?" Tails asked.

"Do you think it's legit?"

"Well..." Tails hesitated, studying the paper closely, more to humor Sonic than to really check for clues. "I can't think of a reason why it wouldn't be. I mean, it _looks_... legit... and I can't think of a reason why someone would want to forge it. Sonic..." Tails looked up, meeting his best friend's eyes. "Is this what I think it is?"

"This is my chance." Sonic said seriously. "This is my chance to find my dad again! To figure out where I came from! Tails-" he smacked his finger down on the paper. "This is it!"

Tails took a deep breath in, then out. "Alright then. We check it out."

"We?" Sonic asked, genuinely taken aback.

"Of course, Silly!" Amy exclaimed. "We're your friends, I'm pretty sure we couldn't stay out of this if we tried!"

"Thanks, you guys." Sonic said with a soft smile.

"What's the address on the letter?" Tails asked. Sonic retrieved the envelope he had tossed aside in his haste and turned it over.

"City Hall, 100 Main Street... Christmas Island?"

"I've never heard of that place." Amy said.

"Me neither." Tails agreed. "But the library's not far - let's go check it out."

Christmas Island, as it turned out, was smack dab in the middle of the Mobian ocean, approximately 3100 miles off the coast of Green Island. While Sonic had been less than pleased at the word island, he visibly balked at the thought of being that far away from land, and was even more unhappy when he discovered it was "only" 250 miles long.

"But that's hardly any room at all!" He protested. "How am I supposed to run?"

"You could do laps." Amy suggested.

Although he didn't say anything more, the look of distaste was evident on his face, not unlike when she insisted on cooking him healthy food for a change.

"Alright." Tails said, too absorbed in the pile of books at his table to hear their discussion. "I think I know where it is now, at least."

"Can you find it?" Sonic asked.

"I should be able to, yeah. The coordinates aren't exact, but it's the general location."

"Okay." Sonic took a deep breath. "So what now?"

Tails looked up. "Now? You get fuel for the plane, Amy makes plans for when we're gone, and I'm going to start preparations on the Tornado. We can leave as early as tomorrow."

* * *

**Subtle? What's that, some kind of fruit? Anyway, let me know what you think so far, ways to improve, etc, etc. -TC**


End file.
